Political

Ignoring the prospect of a pitched political battle, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Thursday renominated the chairman of the California Energy Commission (CEC), Joseph Desmond, for a full six-year term. Leaders in the Democratic-controlled state legislature already have indicated publicly they will block the confirmation of Desmond, a former Silicon Valley business leader who has served as Schwarzenegger’s chief energy adviser.

The political backlash from high winter heating bills may not be nearly as severe as first expected because mild weather has pulled the rug out from under wholesale prices. Consumers Energy said Wednesday that its customers can expect about half of the increase in prices that the utility previously projected.

Amid the political and regulatory euphoria over California’s largest-ever solar incentive program that state regulators approved Thursday are various skeptics questioning the economics of heavily underwriting a technology that is far from being commercially competitive. These concerns caused one of the California Public Utilities Commission members to vote against the massive program that will be paid for by private-sector utility ratepayers.

Five years after a wholesale energy market crisis with lasting economic and political ramifications, one of which was his election to California’s highest office two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger late Thursday in his state-of-the-state address only once referred to energy during a 20-minute, 2,500-word speech in Sacramento. When talking about environmental and state infrastructure programs the “e-word” never crossed the former movie actor’s lips.

Even with political alignment and the right economic metrics, the movement of Arctic natural gas to the Lower 48 states faces the challenge of pipe manufacturing limitations that should prevent the proposed Alaska and Canadian (Mackenzie Delta) pipeline projects being developed concurrently, a Houston-based Chevron executive told an industry audience in Los Angeles Wednesday.

While there are no loan guarantees or other direct subsidies, Canada’s Arctic natural gas project is studded with extras spawned by political aspects of opening up a new supply region with a touchy population.

A political ally, the Northwest Territories government, has stepped forward to try restoring momentum to Canada’s faltering Arctic natural gas project. The territorial government is supporting the C$7 billion (US$5.6 billion) Mackenzie Gas Project so enthusiastically that it is taking a chance on angering one of its biggest constituencies, the Deh Cho aboriginal population along the southern 40% of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

While characterizing the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. three-year Chapter 11 bankruptcy process as a “political choice” made by a solvent company, a PG&E Corp. executive last Monday chastised the former PG&E merchant energy unit for making a lot of bad market decisions.

While characterizing the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. three-year Chapter 11 bankruptcy process as a “political choice” made by a solvent company, a PG&E Corp. executive Monday chastised the former PG&E merchant energy unit for making a lot of bad market decisions.